Waste not, want not: except with federal government

There is an old saying, “waste not, want not” that rouses a boat load of wisdom.

Being frugal is a good thing. Much of what we waste can not be replaced. Much of what we waste unnecessarily clutters up our planet. Much of it could have been cherished by many of our fellow human beings on the planet who are desperate for it. And yet, we continue to waste like there is no tomorrow. Now, a few absurd examples of recent, thoughtless escapades by high flying Liberal governments. P.M. Trudeau, leaped in front of the cameras to announce the upgrade of Canada’s centennial flame. He wasted almost one million dollars on a project that was originally intended to last only one year and had seen more wasted upgrades on three previous occasions. This latest convolution wasted $85,000 on “management” fees, $105,000 on “design” fees, $640,000 on construction and $15,000 on “things” labeled “miscellaneous.” Surely there is more to come.• So what was to be a one-year monument for a brief occasion 51 years ago is now a new and different monument for what, no one is sure. Any symbolism or historical value has been totally lost. The futile dollars spent on design were further wasted by the last minute additional a shield/wedge for Nunavat which didn’t even exist in 1966. That, in turn trashed the original core design.I can not think of a more ostensive indiscretion. Chalk up another cool million to our deficit! I hope they don’t decide to build another out door skating rink around it.• Another exacerbating lack of prudence is the preoccupation of wasting a minimum of $10 million dollars to resurrect, the P.M.’s housing at #24 Sussex Drive. The 35 room, 150 year old mouse infested asbestos laden pile of rubble was originally built by a lumber baron. It wasn’t even occupied by a Prime Minster before 1951 when Louis St. Laurent and spent a bundle on renovations 67 years ago. It sits vacant, racking up over $400,000 per year in heating, etc., all for nothing. Absolutely every part of the building will have to be upgraded or replaced and modern security is nearly impossible to build in.I will vehemently imply that the weak-kneed efforts to fix this mess must end, immediately! A new, modern 30 room 7,200 square foot complex should replace it. At a very generous, luxurious $1,000 per square foot price the building would only cost $7 million. We are already committed to multi-millions of dollars to upgrade a multitude of federal government buildings. We must stop the fallacious subverting of our tax dollars on any more contemplations of utter waste. Its time to focus on what really matters. Our friends to the south, recently passed a law that 22 existing regulations must be purged for every single new one that is passed into law. We could sure use more of that kind of exulted decision making.